SINGLE REVIEWS: Orphan Boy – Some Frontier

Britain’s leading exponents of “council-pop” – Britain’s only exponents of council-pop – are back with a new single, ‘Some Frontier’.  The track comes from Orphan Boy’s second album Passion, Pain and Loyalty, which was released in August. It’s got radio-friendly-hit written all over it, in that it’s catchy but there’s a slight air of blandness to it.  […]
Hot on the heels of his last release, DVA comes through on Hyperdub for round two. ‘Just Vybe (Soul:Power Mix)’ took me by surprise. The track opened to the exact sound of ‘Natty’ (his first outing on Hyperdub), making me think that I’d somehow picked the wrong file or bounced back in time – I […]

SINGLE REVIEW: DVA (ft. Fatima) – Just Vybe (Soule:Power Mix)

SINGLE: Dinosaur Pile-Up – Mona Lisa

‘Mona Lisa’ is the first single from Dinosaur Pile-up’s forthcoming debut album, Growing Pains.  The Leeds three-piece makes no qualms about their love of the Foo Fighters, and this single certainly makes a fitting tribute. From the get-go there’s a pervading US, 90s feel; the late 90s particularly, where grunge metamorphosed into jock-rock.  And like […]
This track is a taster from the eagerly anticipated third album from Canada’s psyche/stoners Black Mountain. The album “Wilderness Heart” is due for UK release on the 13th of September  2010 and will be supported with a full UK tour in September and October . I must confess I didn’t get around to buying the […]

SINGLE: BLACK MOUNTAIN – OLD FANGS

SINGLE: Grinderman – Heathen Child

For a few years in the mid 60s Bob Dylan attained a level of genius very few musicians have reached before or since. With humour, bile and impossible eloquence he spat out incisive songs that to this day seem to glimpse at some higher truth. Nick Cave has reached a similar plateau. The paranoid, often […]
The feeling is right. It’s raucous, punching, bleary eyed, spinning, upbeat, honky-tonk ruff rock’n’roll blues. But the song’s simple structure is nothing original, and the use of the radio effect on the singer’s voice is a style that gets old – it does not standout as anything to be noticed. The music video shot for this song is […]

SINGLE: The Jim Jones Revue – High Horse

SINGLE: Roots Manuva meets Wrongtom – Jah Warriors

I listened to this record once and thought it was absolutely terrible. Now normally, that’s OK because I can listen to crap over-and-over and rip it to pieces. The whole review process is done in a day or two and I can relax. ‘Jah Warriors’ was so bad that I had to hide for a week […]
Gorillaz once described winning the Mercury Music Prize as, “Like carrying a dead albatross round your neck for eternity”. With such a widely lauded and awarded debut album, when it comes to the Klaxons it’s not the Prize that will weigh them down, but the album itself, and you can substitute that albatross for a […]

SINGLE: Klaxons – Echoes

SINGLE: Cooly G – It’s Up In My Head/Phat Si

After the organ moving sub bass of “Love Dub”, and the kicked back beauty of “Weekend Fly”, Cooly G comes in strong with her next release on Hyperdub. “Up In My Head” follows in the flow of “Love Dub”. Tender synth stabs open, swiftly followed by the cushioned drums bouncing onto the track. Cooly’s vocals […]
After the brain shaking goodness of “Contact, Love, Want, Have”, the genius that is Ikonika steps forth once again with “Dckhdbtch”, the latest release in the Planet Mu series. From her first release to this latest Ikonika never fails to amaze me. The depth bestowed in her tracks both musically and in their engineering is […]

SINGLE: Ikonika – Dckhdbtch